Jon Beinart

Venturing Online and the Beginnings of a Collective

In the early 2000s Jon created a simple website to promote his art online. He had a number of talented artist friends with no web presence who shared his love for surreal themes, so he invited them to be featured on his website in guest galleries. Over time, Jon began seeking out other inspiring like-minded artists to feature on his website. He found that like him, most of the artists he had encountered were alienated by the Australian art scene and institutions. Many had been told at art school that their works were “too illustrative” and that figurative art was no longer relevant. They were encouraged to explore a direction that was more abstract or conceptual. While this feedback was disheartening, these artists had all stayed true to their personal visions and continued making the art that they loved. As Jon continued to encounter and feature more artists on his website, he started to feel that he was a part of something bigger. He had finally found his people and many close friendships began to develop. He felt compelled to show the world that just below the surface of Australia’s contemporary art scene was a largely undiscovered resource of local talent. In 2003 he changed the central focus of his website from his own work to that of the entire group, and the Beinart Underground Australian Art Collective was born. 

Over the following three years Jon curated group exhibitions in Melbourne featuring members of the Collective. Many of these were hosted in association with Angel Circus, a large community of Melbourne-based musicians, performers and artists. As the group’s art director and curator, Jon organised fortnightly exhibitions at Angel Circus events showcasing new works by members of Beinart Collective, and he also co-edited Angel Circus Magazine, which featured their artworks. These events grew in popularity, as did the exposure and membership of the Beinart Collective. Many of the artists featured on his website attended these events, which helped foster a strong sense of community.

There's Something in the Milk - Oil painting by Jon Beinart, 20 x 20 cm (2018)

The Collective Goes Global

As Jon continued expanding and promoting the Australian artist collective, he launched another website, the Surreal Art Forum, an online meeting place for artists around the globe. As social media sites were still in their infancy and there were no other online forums dedicated to surreal art, the forum grew fast and became very active. It also featured a page with hundreds of thumbnail links to living artists who Jon had discovered over the years. This page became particularly popular and attracted loads of new members to the forum and visitors to the Australian art collective website. This led to a surge of international submissions for the Collective, and after much deliberation, Jon decided to merge the collective with the forum. The Beinart International Surreal Art Collective was launched in 2006.

At its peak, the International Surreal Art Collective website had over 600 artist profiles with individual galleries and an active forum. It also featured a popular blog with artist interviews, articles and exhibition previews. It had become the primary online resource and meeting place for artists, fans and collectors with a shared passion for surreal and imaginative art.

Artists at Beinart Collective's Dystopia group show at Copro Gallery (2011)

Beinart Publishing

As the Collective grew, so did the associated expenses. Jon decided it was time for a commercial venture, and he entered the world of publishing. While this move was partly intended to provide financial support for his passion project, he had developed a keen interest in publishing and felt that the movement needed to be documented in a way that was less ephemeral than the Internet.

Jon founded Beinart Publishing in 2007 with the release of Metamorphosis, a collection of works by 50 artists from the Collective. The book was immensely popular, leading to publication of Metamorphosis 2. Beinart Publishing went on to release a series of monographs which were also edited by Jon: The Extraordinary Drawings of Laurie Lipton (2010), Kris Kuksi: Divination and Delusion (2010) and Black Magick: The Art of Chet Zar (2012).

By the time Jon released Chet Zar’s monograph, most of the distributors and book shops which had held Beinart’s titles had gone out of business. This was caused by a myriad of factors, including the residual effects of the global financial crisis and the rise of Amazon. At this stage Jon decided not to continue to pursue publishing.

Alex Grey with Chet Zar's book (Beinart Publishing) and Chet Zar with Alex Grey's book.

Guest Curator in the USA

From 2010 to 2015, Jon guest curated a series of group exhibitions at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. Jon had been admiring Copro Gallery’s artists and exhibition program for many years, so he was thrilled when owner Greg Escalante and director Gary Pressman reached out and invited him to bring the Collective to their space. The significance of this was enhanced by Escalante’s contribution to this movement as the co-founder of Juxtapoz Magazine and curator of many of the first museum shows for artists in the movement. Escalante, a personal hero and friend to Jon, died in 2017.

Curating the group exhibitions provided Jon the excuse to finally travel to the USA and meet many of the artists whom he had been corresponding with and promoting for years. He found that he had more in common with the artists than their shared passion for strange art and he experienced a powerful sense of belonging. The shared sense of purpose and camaraderie among the artists was inspiring and contagious. Jon came to feel as though he was part of a global community.

Jon also met countless people in Los Angeles who had followed Beinart since the beginning, which was a new experience, as the following in Melbourne was still very niche and underground at that stage. It was exciting to see that his projects had made a difference to so many people and that there was so much interest and enthusiasm for the art that he loved.

Jon Beinart and Corinne Leita at the opening of Dystopia at Copro Gallery (2011)

From Website Curator to Gallery Owner

By the end of 2012, Jon had scaled back his projects, as they were no longer financially viable without the publishing arm. Having recently become a father, he made the difficult decision to pursue a more stable path and began studying psychology with the aim of becoming a clinical psychologist. Despite this shift, he continued curating group shows in America and maintaining the Collective’s website.

By 2015, the Collective had become a financial strain. Jon and Corinne Leita launched a crowdfunding campaign to sustain the website and fund international exhibitions for five more years. Thanks to strong community support—and generous donations of artworks—the campaign reached its goal within 24 hours.

With unexpected momentum, they introduced a stretch goal: to open a pop-up gallery in Melbourne. By the campaign’s end, they had enough to launch a gallery and run it for a year. In February 2016, Beinart Gallery was born. Originally intended as temporary, it soon became a permanent part of Melbourne’s art scene. Corinne moved on in 2022, and the gallery is now solely run by Jon.

To this day, Beinart Gallery continues to champion the surreal art that inspired its founding. For Jon, the journey—from introverted artist to gallerist—has been both surreal and deeply fulfilling. Through the gallery, he has built a community that supports the kind of artists he once longed to connect with.

Still an Artist

While Jon has found his dream career, which feels less like a job than a passion project, it’s left little time for his own art. Since opening the gallery, he’s only completed a handful of works but hopes to carve out more time in the coming years. Recently, he’s shifted from drawing to oil painting. Watch this space, and contact us if you’d like to be notified when new works become available.